Scene It Before: MacGyver’s Larchmont Loft

All the duct tape in the world couldn’t put MacGyver’s Season 2 home back together again

My husband couldn’t care less about filming locations. In our 14-year relationship, there has been only one instance in which he showed excitement over a locale, and that was in 2008 when we visited the 2nd story loft where MacGyver (Richard Dean Anderson) lived on the popular ‘80s action-adventure series of the same name. So I was absolutely gutted a few weeks ago when I drove by the building, located at 156 N. Larchmont Boulevard in Windsor Square, and saw that it had been completely remodeled and looks nothing like its former self.

Once a bit ramshackle and decidedly retro, the structure is now modern with a cement façade and arched roof. MacGyver would hardly recognize the place!

According to a LoopNet listing, construction on the 12,000-square-foot building, which will house retail space and offices, was at one point supposed to be completed in spring 2013, but when I drove by in November it was still undergoing renovations.

MacGyver only lived in the loft, which was situated above a hardware store and a dry cleaner, during the series’ second season. By Season 3 production had relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia (“runaway production” isn’t new), and TV’s favorite secret agent had set up shop in a houseboat docked in Coal Harbor’s Bute Marina. When that area was redeveloped in the 1990s, the floating home was moved, first to Richmond Marina and then to a private marina in Langley. Thankfully, the modern pads MacGyver lived in during Seasons 1 and 7 still stand in Venice (at 317 Ocean Front Walk and 1421 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, respectively), looking much the same as they did onscreen when the series originally aired

Photos: A screen capture from a Season 2 episode of MacGyver (left), a photograph of the location taken in 2008, courtesy of Mike Flores (middle), and a November 2013 photograph of the location, courtesy of Lindsay Blake (right).

Lindsay Blake is an actress, writer, celebrity admirer and Los Angeles enthusiast who contributes to CityThink each Thursday. Her true love is filming locations, and she founded the Web site IAMNOTASTALKER in 2007 to document her vast findings on the subject. For more “stalking” fun, you can follow Lindsay on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.